Sharks emerge with 6-5 OT win over Coyotes

Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s wrist shot at 2:42 of overtime Saturday night gave the San Jose Sharks a 6-5 victory over the Arizona Coyotes at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif.

It was the fifth goal of the season for Vlasic, with Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton picking up assists to finish with three-point nights.

San Jose’s Joonas Donskoi forced overtime with his second goal of the night at 19:44 of the third period with goalie Aaron Dell off the ice for a sixth skater.

The teams combined for six goals in just over eight minutes of a wild first period that saw San Jose coach Peter DeBoer pull Martin Jones after the goalie allowed three goals on only six shots.

The Sharks struck first as Thornton potted his ninth from Pavelski at 5:53, taking Pavelski’s pass from behind the net and sweeping the puck past Scott Wedgewood at the left post. Arizona equalized at 9:01 with Derek Stepan’s ninth tally, a wrister from a sharp angle.

Pavelski made it 2-1 with a power-play marker at 10:59 when his centering pass for Tomas Hertl in the slot instead hit the stick of Coyotes defenseman Jason Demers and eluded Wedgewood. Arizona’s Alex Goligoski wasted no time tying it, snapping a shot from the right point past Jones at 12:16.

Logan Couture’s 17th goal at 13:37 off a beautiful Donskoi pass — he threaded the puck through Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s legs — gave San Jose a 3-2 lead. But as the public-address announcer was exulting over that marker, Christian Fischer chased Jones 24 seconds later with a backhander for his 12th goal.

The second period was much more sedate. Donskoi managed the only goal at 17:07 when he beat Wedgewood to a loose puck between the circles and chipped it over the onrushing goalie for his first of the night.

Ekman-Larsson’s wrister through net-front traffic hit a Sharks defender and tied the game at 3:31 of the third period, his seventh of the season. Josh Archibald gave Arizona its first lead of the night, 4-3, with his second goal in as many nights and third of the season at 6:22.

Dell got the win, saving 13 of the 15 shots he faced. Wedgewood stopped 38 shots in the losing cause.

San Jose’s Brent Burns racked up three assists. Stepan finished with a goal and an assist, and the Coyotes’ Christian Dvorak added two assists.